The Renascence Arts Festival is a 2-day outdoor celebration of the arts; featuring live music, poetry garden, dance performances, open air market with artists & crafts, food vendors, family friendly activities & including a kid zone. The overall purpose of the festival is to encourage attendees & supporters to experience the great cultural shift of the arts. A new modern day Renaissance.
Our first RAF will be held in 2017 on August 26th & 27th at Wild Bill's Nostalgia in Middletown, ConnecticutThe festival is and will always be FREE admission with donations being accepted | Camping on grounds the whole weekend is $25 per person (Must get a weekend camping pass in advanced or at the gate) | Vendors can camp FREE with the purchase of vendor spot
We are hoping to reach our overall goal of $20,000+ but $10,000 would let us pull it off. This will pay for: Security: This is our biggest expense next to operational cost (venue, insurance and production). The outdoor property is huge so max capacity won't be an issue. We will need to pay an outside security company to keep us all safe. This is over half of the funds. $2000-$4000.Liability Insurance: $700 Operational Cost: Venue- $1400 | Stage Lighting & Sound: $4000+. The outdoor venue has 3 built stages already, 2 Larger ones for musical and theatrical acts and one that will be used for Indie films. We will need decor, sound and lighting. (Including in house instruments for music performances. Artists can bring their own instruments to use as well) Amenities: We'll need water, portable restrooms, dumpsters/trash cans & bags $1500
In, 2017 our goals are:
- - All major cost covered on our end to provide this great festival
- - Feature performances from local & national artists and musicians from the East Coast mainly New England & Tri-State areas
- - Local/regional arts and crafts, food, local store and merchandise vendors
- - Geodesic Dome for one of our stages (Indie Film Stage)
- - Feature Indie Films
- - Theatrical Performances
- - Burlesque Shows
- - Community Drum circles
- - Volleyball
- - Canvases forest
- - Body painting
- - Neon paint war
- - Fire dancers
- - Bonfires
- - Yoga workshops
- - Glow in the dark golf
- - Onsite bar
- - Live Glass blowing
- - Fire Performances
- - Hula Hooping
- - Graffiti Wall
- - Community Art projects
- - Carnival Rides (If possible)
- - Tent Camping, Bus and RV Parking (On camping grounds)
- - Kid and Family Activities
- - Have over 1000 people per day in attendance
Re·nas·cence: \riˈnasəns,-ˈnāsəns/ noun formal the revival of something that has been dormant. Organized by Reign Art (www.fb.com/reignartbe) with the help of Artists Supporting Artists (http://www.artistssupportingartists.net/). The Renascence Arts Festival features local, national and international artists, musicians, performers, and audiences in a celebration of collaboration and discovery. A new modern day Renaissance. We'll have an email sign-up shortly for future volunteers/vendors/sponsors/performers/musicians for 2017 coming soon! www.renascenceartsfestival.com www.facebook.com/renascenceartsfestival
Risks and challenges
Like many projects in their infancy stage, we fully recognize that RAF will crawl before it will walk or run. It may even fall down. Though, there is information and wisdom to be gained from failures both great and small. We are ready to meet the organizational challenges of planning a festival for the 2nd time ever. Last year in 2016, we ended up canceling the festival and we refunded all of our vendors. We decided to move on to focus on 2017 to make everything better this go around with the help of the community. We are doing what we love; supporting the work of Artists, Creators, Thinkers, Activists, Elders and Youth.Right now, our major challenge is raising money for the venue, insurance and paying all performing artists. This all requires money and careful co-ordination and scheduling. We are fortunate to have a vibrant and diverse community to support us in this way. We have secured the Wild Bill's Nostalgia for our Renascence Arts Festival in Middletown, CT. The Jazzmen Music and Gallery (http://www.jazzmenmusicandgallery.com/) in West Hartford, Connecticut will be our base of operations for several fundraising events and installations. We will also be working with local community colleges to hold events on campus. However, it is still a challenge to bring an idea of this scope into fruition with so many moving parts and such a small budget.Another risk that we face is going over budget and not being able to fully fund our complete vision for this festival. Being able to provide artists and musicians an honorarium and travel funds to participate in the festival is a core belief that we as artists and producers stand by. Too often artists do not get paid for the incalculable and profound work they do in the world through the creation of their art. Their work can have the power to challenge, heal, and inspire us. Many of the festival participants are traveling from other regions of the US, mainly the Northeast. Some from communities that also lack resources to support the growth and development of their art. Paying for the travel expenses for these artists to come to Connecticut gives them direct access to be able to create and inspire communities outside their own.
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